May 8th, 2020 
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Cut over is never an easy task. It is a great sign that the project is coming to an end soon and the product is ready to be deployed to production and go live. To prepare for an effective and successful cutover requires a plan consisting of a series of steps that must be precisely orchestrated. Communication is also a very key component. It will require approval from all departments and communication is even more important because of all the departments it will be affecting. The expectation of a seamless cutover is possible as long as we have a plan.
For the cut over plan, there is a lot of potential risks. Testing and development can happen without any issues. A challenging aspect is a test environment does not always mimic a production environment. Having a strong enterprise risk management strategy in case of unexpected downtime is very important. A risk management plan will have data backups and a disaster recovery plan. Minimizing negative outcome becomes a high priority during cut over.
Another risk associated with a cut over plan is if there is a lack of communication to all departments affected by the cut over. As I mentioned before communication will play a very important role in this plan. Clear and consistent information needs to be sent to clinical staff. Designing a plan and sharing that with all affected parties will help minimize risk. During an implementation, interfaces will need to be turned off and turned on pointing to the correct places. During this moment technology is down and not accessible. Having the departments ready for any manual processes when cut over happens will mitigate service calls to the help desk that their system is down. When people are unaware of what is happening and there is a disruption to their normal workflow it causes panic and unnecessary stress. If we can prepare them for this downtime usually goes by quickly.
References :
[1] Enterprise Risk Management. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2020, from https://des.wa.gov/services/risk-management/about-risk-management/enterprise-risk-management
[2] Chowdhury, A. (2019, November 7). How to Formulate and Execute an Effective Cutover Plan. Retrieved March 4, 2020, from https://www.plutora.com/blog/cutover-plan
[3] Nagle, L. M., & Catford, P. (2008). Toward a Model of Successful Electronic Health Record Adoption. Healthcare Quarterly, 11(3). Retrieved from https://moodle2.brandeis.edu/pluginfile.php/1402392/mod_resource/content/2/PhilipsHealthcare_EH_vol7_no1_Nagle.pdf
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